Post by Les on Aug 29, 2017 8:39:12 GMT
Maidstone I remember it well:
Gabriels Hill. Just read the entry on Gabriels Hill. The furniture shop at the top of the hill on the corner with King Street was Ambroses, an old established furishing store and actually part of the Lenworth Group who also owned the Len Cabinet Works in Water Lane which indeed manufactured furniture. Many old photos of the top of the town show Ambroses store on that corner.
The empty bombed out shop on the left going down the hill I recall well, it was very late being rebuilt, and the alley adjacent was always a bit scary for a youngster!! There was often a one legged first world war veteran selling lavender bags or matches sitting on the remaining frontage of this shop until it was rebuilt, or until he could no longer sell anything, anyone remember him?
Your mention of the Granada Arcade as it was known, with Ashplants and Pias's Coffee Bar, reminds me that prior to the coffee bar being Pia's, it was Conte's, and before that, it was a smaller cafe/restaurant called 'Strawberry Fair' with a bow window and net curtains.
I well remember this detail because we could go in there when bunking off school without the fear of anyone seeing us!!! The other memories include, on the opposite side next, or very near to, the Club was a chiropodist shop, I remember attending there for veruka treatment and also for 'dropped arches' when I was about 10!!
On the corner with Palace Avenue was a large Funeral Director's parlour, and I think next door a Monumental Mason's showrom? Your mention of the Palace Theatre where Robert Dias is now reminds me that with big films on show it was often that we queued to get in and the alleyway adjacent to the site was where we queued and I recall a narrow canopy over about half the alleyway which did protect you from the rain. More than provided by the Granada which had no cover at all, and many many times the queue would go right round Granada Street and back to the bottom of the Hlll, such was the demand for the cinema in those days.
Another memory of the Gabriels Hill area was the exposed part of the River Len in Water Lane, often as after school entertainment we would throw something substantial in the Len there an then rush round to Palace Avenue and see it float up to the wier opposite the old bus station.
Talking of that area, who remembers the newspaper kiosk overhanging the Len outside Rootes Garage in Mill Street? Run by another first world war veteran who had a dreadful early motorised invalid tricycle car. I was at school with his son Peter Heron from John Street or Cross Street. He always had a good stock of 'pin-up' type material as well as the daily and evening papers!